Editors' picks across 8categories — the dock with the deepest channel, the winery with the view, the restaurant with the right wine list, the trail nobody's on at sunrise.
Casual waterfront dining leasing space at Eaton Ferry Marina — the current restaurant tenant at the marina after a recent ownership change, open daily.
Visit ↗A waterfront American restaurant on Eaton Ferry Road, accessible by boat or car — a longtime Lake Gaston dining destination with lake views.
Visit ↗Waterfront dining and a bar at Poplar Pointe Marine on the Virginia side, reachable by boat or car — open seven days a week, April through October.
Visit ↗Nearly 30 miles of hiking, mountain-biking, and equestrian trails through the rolling hills of a former volcanic range, about 20-30 minutes from Littleton — the genuinely public outdoor alternative for a lake with limited public shoreline access.
Visit ↗An authorized Nautique, Chaparral, Robalo, and Harris boat dealership on the Virginia side of the lake — sales, service, and parts, alongside Shady Shack Grill.
Visit ↗Lake Gaston's premier full-service marina — a 47,000-square-foot facility with a fully stocked ship store, a 21-boat rental fleet, 300 dry-stack storage slips, and a boat dealer, home to One Eyed Jack's.
Visit ↗The lake's only public swimming area, on Jack Brown Road near the dam, on property provided by Dominion — a designated swim area, ADA-accessible fishing pier, playground, public boat ramp, and a free picnic shelter. Open seasonally, sunrise to sunset.
Built by Virginia Electric and Power Company and dedicated on June 26, 1963, roughly forty years after the utility first proposed it — a 3,600-foot earth-and-rock-fill dam rising 105 feet, with four hydroelectric generators producing 224 megawatts.